Cheat Sheets

Multi-vari uses a specific data sampling plan, which graphically highlights the major variation cause in the output characteristic of your Six Sigma process while allowing the process to operate in its[more…]

Seeking clarification is critical in Six Sigma and normal probability plots can help with this. When someone tells you that his or her data are normal, always respond with, How normal are they? No real-world[more…]

Consider an example of a real situation where you can use a multi-vari study for a Sigma Six project. It can be used to pare down a large collection of potential factors and discover the critical few[more…]

Confidence intervals give you a way of quantifying how much variation will appear in repeated measurements and statistical calculations for Six Sigma. Knowing how to create confidence intervals, you’ll[more…]

Simple linear regression is becoming a common activity. Any Sigma Six practitioner with Microsoft Excel, for example, can take data from an X and a Y variable and almost immediately create a scatter plot[more…]

What should Six Sigma practitioners do with all the situations where more than one X influences a Y? You use multiple linear regression.After all, that kind of situation is more common than a single influencing[more…]

You may be wondering whether a solid strategy for experimentation even exists. Lucky for you, we have just that. Six Sigma uses a reliable approach to experimentation that helps you do the following:[more…]

Like in most other endeavors, time spent planning for Six Sigma is rewarded with better results in a shorter period of time. Planning 2k factorial experiments follows a simple pattern: choosing the factors[more…]

Six Sigma emphasizes the Control phase and planning for it because previous attempts at improving quality and business performance repeatedly demonstrated that process behavior is complex and fragile and[more…]

For Six Sigma, 5S can be invaluable for reducing waste. High-performing processes and workplaces are always characterized by organization and cleanliness. The whole point is to reduce or keep out waste[more…]

Mistake-proofing, or Poka-Yoke (pronounced POH-kuh YOH-kay) as it’s known in Japan, is an action you take in Six Sigma to remove or significantly lower the opportunity for an error or to make the error[more…]

The primary SPC tool for Six Sigma is the control chart— a graphical tracking of a process input or an output over time. In the control chart, these tracked measurements are visually compared to decision[more…]

If you apply control charting as a part of your Six Sigma process control plan, you can use the control chart itself to trigger action or to leave things as they are based on what the control chart tells[more…]

Process intelligence tools give you all the information you need to understand what’s happening with process behavior and performance in a Six Sigma Initiative. These tools are vitally important because[more…]

When defining a project, you get into the nuts and bolts of Six Sigma. Doing this step right is well worth your time because 50 percent of your project’s success depends on how well it’s defined![more…]

Failure mode effects analysis (FMEA) is a tool you can use in Six Sigma to quantify and prioritize risk within a process, product, or system and then track actions to mitigate that risk. It’s valuable[more…]

FMEA can be very valuable for identifying failure modes in a Six Sigma Initiative. After scoring the severity of the possible effects, your cross-functional FMEA team brainstorms potential causes of the[more…]

Distribution is the statistical term that describes the relative likelihood of observing values for a variable factor. When you think of a Six Sigma initiative and the critical performance characteristics[more…]

You don’t have to wait until your multi-vari data are collected to start creating the multi-vari chart for Six Sigma. Instead, you can build the chart, incrementally, adding more to it as you collect more[more…]

When enacting a Six Sigma initiative, you will undoubtedly encounter short term variation. Short-term variation is purely random. Like rolling a pair of dice, you can’t predict what the next output value[more…]

You will need to understand long term variation to launch a successful Six Sigma initiative. When underlying disturbances are added to the natural short-term variation, the overall combination is called[more…]

Like putting two people back-to-back to see who’s taller, Sigma Six uses box and whisker plots (or just box plots) to directly compare two or more variation distributions. When you need to compare value[more…]